Owner's Thread: Dell Inspiron 7000 series

Honestly I can't tell a major difference between the 840 PRO and the M4 in practical use on a laptop - unless you are doing very intensive stuff there is no reason to bother with the EVO

 

Yes its fine. You can get Nvidia geforce experience for more control.

 

Has anyone here tried to boot Ubuntu 13.10 from a USB start up disk plugged into the USB port closest to the AC adapter and experienced random restarts after shutting it down?
I feel there is a problem with my laptop and am returning it, but it would be nice to know one way or the other.
I have posted a detailed analysis of this problem on the Dell forums but thought I would ask the community here as well.
(See the link below)

Thanks in advance.

Dell Inspiron 7000 (7537) random restarts from Ubuntu USB - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

 

Hi guys.
Iam newbie here so dont stoning me
So i just find the way, how to get a original ISO copy of windows 8.1 , as some guys requested...
And here is my solution:

1, Click on this link http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=271128
2, Type your activation key
3, Chose the option for a medium ( ISO optin 2 )

 

I was just wondering if there are still problems with the WiFi connection on these laptops? Are there any other issues? Sorry for being lazy, but it would take me hours to go through all the pages now.

 

Yes the wifi problems are still very widespread. Pretty much to the extent that youll want to get a new card to fit, and most but not everyone is happy after that.

Many people also experience a hiss on the headphone socket. This requires at least a motherboard swap, and some people have never managed to eliminiate it.

Drivers still need some sorting out, and the nvidia ones seem to be missing out the box. Driver issues cause hibernation problems after upgrading to 8.1

A couple of instances of defective space bars.

Do not upgrade the HDD to a Samsung Pro SSD, it will break the drive

Some screens have been received that arent the same quality as the original IPS screens, reports of image persistance or yellowing.

 

Never had any Wi-Fi issues with mine.

 

Good Job Man :thumbsup:
Well, i have one question for you. I will get tommorow my 7537 (ofcourse if they dont change delivery date as they already did twice?! ).
I just bought this laptop like a replacement for my 3years old (piece of sh*t) vaio VPC F11J0E which is gone
And if my new 7537 will have same problem with wifi adaptor, do you think if i will be able to use this one from vaio?
Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN (a b g n ), 2.1 + EDR Bluetooth
Thank you in advance..

 

If it's a standard half height mini PCI-E card there should be no problems.

 

Hi guys.
Iam totaly mess it up. Iam jjust try to clone from 1TB hard drive to 250GB SSD with the FarStone Drive Clone 10 Free version
Unfortunately when i turn laptop on, i get on the screen just this message: NO BOOT DEVICE FOUND in old and new as well
Can anyone give me a hand as soon as posible?
Thank you very much

 

are you sure you did not clone in the wrong direction, i.e. blank SSD towards your original HDD??
try to connect each to antoher laptop with a USB-Sata wire to see if there is still something on them...

 

I hope this is the right place for this: I just wanted to add my experiences for anyone considering a Dell Inspiron 7000, particularly a 7537. :hi2:

Dell Inspiron 7537 Review:
I took delivery of my new Dell Inspiron 7537 10 days ago now, and have spent that time getting to know it. It was ordered through Dell Australia and the spec is:

• Intel i7 4500U Processor
• 8Gb Ram
• Nvidia GT750m 2Gb GDDR5
• 15.6” Full HD IPS Screen with Touch.
• 1Tb 5400 Rpm Hard Disc.
• All the other standard Gubbins.

Looks and Build
The Inspiron 7537 looks very classy. The top plate is all aluminium, and is bevelled around the top edge. The Corning Gorilla Glass Screen is very solid and flex Free. The Hinge is ‘tight’ – I guess because of the touch Screen meaning it can’t rock, but it feels very solid. There is no chassis flex at all. The sockets around the edge are machined into the top plate. The base plate including the curved surround is plastic, which cheapens the overall feel slightly. Where the two halves meet is a 90 degree machined Edge on the Aluminium, which again breaks the illusion of the whole laptop being milled from Aluminium. It feels quite dense, I think because it is slim and edgy rather than the actual weight being high. The overall impression is excellent at the price point, but certainly not up to MacBook standards like some claim. But then you’re not paying MacBook prices!

Screen
The Screen - the 1900x1080 IPS version - is excellent. Sharp vibrant colours, really nice appearance and edge to edge looks blended in with the glass front plate, and no bleeding or defects that I can see. The Touch screen is responsive and good to use, though I was indifferent if the laptop had one or not. I think it really makes sense with Windows 8. I find myself using it intuitively for certain functions (Swipe between running apps instead of Alt+Tab for example). No complaints here for general use.

Sound
Costs have DEFINITELY been cut with the sound on this laptop. My last one was a Dell XPS with a tiny in built subwoofer, and it sounded surprisingly good playing music and games. Certainly listenable. The Inspiron 7537 speakers are poor by comparison, and I struggle to call them ‘adequate’. If you listen to internet radio quietly, or talk radio, podcasts or youtube, they’re fine. You can hear what’s going on. They work. Nothing more. Games lack depth, power and sparkle to gunshots and the like. What isn’t acceptable IMO is the headphone output. There is a VERY noticeable high pitched interference on the left channel only. This comes and goes as the laptop enables/disables it’s internal amp, and it’s clearly a hardware issue with a ground loop or inducted noise or similar. It’s audible over music and changes with volume, so it’s introduced pre- amplifier. Honestly, I find it so annoying that I can’t use headphones for more than 5 minutes. I’ve tried it with everything from very cheap mobile phone headphones to my $200 Ultimate Ears in ear headphones, and the noise is always intrusive to some degree. I’ve heard others refer to this problem. Therefore, if you make a habit of using headphones with your laptop, I can only recommend that you look elsewhere than the Inspiron 7000 series. It’s a real shame, because Dell have dropped the ball and since it’s a hardware fault and most likely on-board, it’s not going to get fixed any time soon.

Performance
I’m very happy with the performance of this laptop for my use. One initial point is that it was supplied without ANY Nvidia drivers at all – rendering the GT750m useless out of the box. Once installed, I fired up some games: Deus Ex: human Revolution, Civ 5, and War Thunder. All run smoothly (40fps+) on high settings at 1900x1080. To say I’m impressed is an understatement. These games look gorgeous and play fluidly. Who could want more from a laptop at this price point?
General performance is good. I checked and the i7 4500U is set to 15 TDW (not the 10.5 in Notebook checks review sample). It zips along encoding video, and general office work and web browsing is instantaneous as you’d expect. It boots from stone cold to login in 23 seconds, and takes another 10 after login to get to a useable desktop. It wakes from sleep instantly. This is with the Win 8.1 update and all new drivers, plus browser plug-ins and Avast. For casual gaming (i.e. playing to enjoy, not to crank all the settings to Ultra) and general daily use, this laptop will perform very well.

Input: Keyboard and Touchpad
The Keyboard is generally fine. The Number pad is certainly useful and I find the keyboard tactility and accuracy fine now that I’ve adapted to it. There are no problems with my spacebar even at the extreme ends of it. I like the backlighting and have taken to using it the whole time. One check point is that the keyboard is extremely low contrast – backlight on or off. The keys are silver, the backing is silver, the edges (gaps) are grey, and the markings are either grey or light white. Unless you are actually in the dark with the backlight on or in full light, it can be hard to make out keys at times. If you are visually impaired, I think this would be a frustration. It has occasionally caught me out when playing games in low light and looking for an unusual key press when my hands are not in the touch typing ‘home’ position. Beyond that I have no complaints. There is minimal flex and typing feel and speed is good.
A frustration I’ve found with the touchpad is the integrated left and right buttons to click. You can just tap to click (but not right click) but if you try and use the bottom left corner of the pad, it interprets this input either as a slight move to the cursor (missing what you wanted to click!) or as a ‘pinch to zoom’ with your other finger, zooming the active window. This trait is highly annoying, and I can’t for the life of me work out what was wrong with separate clickable buttons – apart from pennies on the unit/design cost for Dell. I’m slowly getting used to it, but I’d rather not have to. Obviously you can alter touchpad settings to eliminate this problem, but you lose multi touch gesture functionality in doing so.

Wifi Performance.
I was nervous about this having read about people having issues with Wi-Fi on various forums. I have not noticed a problem – This laptop far outpaces my old Dell XPS and seven year old Inspiron (1501) using Ubuntu on the same Router. My router is mounted upstairs in a back bedroom, I use this laptop about 10m away, beneath it, through floors and walls, or else 20+ meters away through floors and even more walls, and the Wi-Fi appears fast and stable. I’ve downloaded my entire Steam Catalogue (50Gb+), the Windows 8.1 Update, and other large downloads, and all have been swift and without lost connections. HOWEVER, I should note that my internet connection is not Wi-Fi Limited – I use Wireless Broadband internet, and generally get only around 10Mb/S. For my needs I’ve not noticed any problems using the updated Intel drivers and without any tweaking at all. Steam was downloading as fast as it ever has over Wi-Fi.

Battery life:
I can’t comment too much as I generally run my computer from mains power. However, it’s survived several hours away from the power adaptor, and reports around 5-6 hours battery life in ‘balanced’ mode. I think it’s very good, particularly compared to my XPS which never really got beyond a couple of hours on battery.

Summary: :thumbsup:
Overall I’m very happy with the performance of this laptop. It works well for general use, looks a class act and would be at home in a professional environment. It’s performance and utility is excellent. My one major misgiving is the noise apparent through headphones. If you must make use of headphones, this is a deal breaker and desperately needs to be fixed by Dell at the hardware level for future production, IMO, because it will cost them sales until it is fixed. It’s the one blot on an otherwise clean copybook for the Inspiron 7537.

 

I'm looking for a laptop exclusively for Linux (Ubuntu primarily and some other distros).
A Dell Inspiron 17R caught my eye but I have a few questions.
Specs are :
Inspiron 7537, Core i7, Radeon 8870 2Gb, 16Gb of RAM, 1Tb HDD, backlit keyboard.
My question is whether the backlit keyboard on this model is bios controlled rather than in software. In other words, does it work in linux ?
Also, how does the rest of the laptop fare in linux (wifi, bluetooth, etc). ? Possible to switch from UEFI to legacy bios ?
What about drivers for AMD cards ?

It comes with a regular HDD but I assume replacing the DVD drive with a SSD wouldn't be a problem ?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated !

 

I own the 7537 model, which is the 15".
The keyboard light works with the physical buttons, haven't actually tried to switch the light on and off through software.
The WiFi works out of the box, but I had some configuration issues with the bluetooth, as it didn't always pair.
The BIOS is no issue, since Ubuntu now supports UEFI mode as well.
I wasn't able to make the Nvidia video card work, so I had to rely on the Intel GPU.

Please notice that I had huge audio issues, since audio seemed to be working through headphones only, speakers worked every other day.

 

Mine must be the 7737 model then.
About the UEFI : I suppose it's possible to boot into legacy bios ? I know Ubuntu now supports UEFI but it's still not very stable, as far as I understand.

Ideally, I'd go for a System76 laptop but I live in Belgium, Europe and you can't get them here.
So looking at other options. Acer, Asus, Toshiba all seem to have issues with Linux.
Dell and Lenovo seem to be the most user friendly. I really fancy a Lenovo Thinkpad but they're really expensive.
Dell makes a good compromise.

I'd heard about the bios controlled keyboard backlighting with Dell laptops, but nobody was able to confirm. Your post is comforting, though. Hadn't heard of any audio issues with Dell, have to look into that.

What distro are you running ? If it's Ubuntu, are you running 13.10 ? I will be installing that initially, but will be switching to the LTS 14.04 when it's released, maybe even going to Mint Cinnamon 17 (which should be the equivalent of ubuntu 14.04.

Been a Mac user for nearly 15 years but have grown bored of the system. That's why I'm switching to Linux.

 

I ran the 13.10, I currently am on Windows 8.1 only, since I am on a custom mounted SSD (kind of limited with 250 GB). But I am going to test the 13.10 again with a live USB very soon, since I really want to be able to use Ubuntu.

 

Not had anyone confirm my earlier question which is, does the sound interference happen if you use a pair of USB headphones? Im hoping no!

 

The Inspiron 15R is not the 7537 they are completely different machines.

 

It's a 17R, not a 15R. Strange but at checkout it lists that particular 17R as a 7537 (didn't confirm the order yet).
I live in Belgium, so maybe specs differ between countries. I'll have a look on the US site for comparison.

In any case, I'm not too bothered about the AMD card, linux drivers keep getting better and better and I'm not a hardcore gamer. I just need to sure that the keyboard backlight works (i.e. can be turned on and off with the press of a button).

Edit : on Dell's US site, there's not a single model with AMD graphics, it's either Intel integrated or nVidia. Same on the UK site. I wonder why...

Edit 2 : just chatted with Dell support and asked them why in some countries they use nVidia and AMD in others. "Because every country has its own options to choose from." Bit vague, but they won't answer any question about Linux because "they don't support it", except on the XPS13 developer edition...

 

Has anybody tried installing an Intel 530 SSD onto the Inspiron?

 

I have solved my wifi problem and am thrilled. I also feel incredibly stupid, but will share in case anyone else is in the same boat. I have had terrible download speeds as soon as I get more than 8-10 feet from router - anywhere from .9 - 5mps. Wifi card has been changed 3 times, same model, then 2 different models. No joy. Today, I noticed a second nework with my network's name and a 5 after it in the list of available networks. I connected to that network and my speeds have been phenomenal. In my office, near the router, I'm getting within 1mps of wired speeds - 28.3mps. 30-40' away, I'm getting 23mps. I mistakenly assumed that the wifi switched automatically between the 2 bands to get the best available speed.

Funny how none of the 4 Dell techs that dialed in to diagnose my problem nor the techs who came out to my house to swap wifi cards thought of that.

 

I am also getting another network (same name, with a 2 in the end), but switching over to that other network didn't solve anything to me.

 

That would be the 2.4ghz band, I would think. So you are still having trouble? I thought you had resolved your issue.

 

No, I didn't solve it. I solved the SSD issue by switching it with the EVO.

 

Hey guys,

hope you’re all doing well with your dell laptop. Just wanted to ask if some of you guys still have the hissing problems by using earphones? Dell already changed the motherboard of my laptop but the hissing (or the noise) is still there.
Does somebody maybe uses the apple earphones or the AKG K 451 and has NO problems? Or maybe has a solution how to solve the hissing issue?

Greets from Germany

 

Hi, I've uninstalled realtech audio drivers and now I'm using windows 8.1 default hd audio drivers. This way hissing is lower but you loose realtech audio control panel and features.

Greetings from Italy

Inviato dal mio Nexus 7 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

Do you have the option of trying a usb headset, like for games?

 

15R or 17R it doesn't matter, the R models are completely different laptops.

17R is in the "lower" 5000 series -> Details van Dell Inspiron 17R-laptop | Dell België

This thread is about the 7000 series, the 17 inch version would be this one -> Nieuwe Inspiron 17 7000 reeks 17-inch HD-laptop - Details | Dell België

 

I'd be interested in what you find with the live USB.
I used the live USB 13.10 and it would restart within a few seconds after shut down, more often than not.
I have returned the laptop now while I had the option, and not much time to chase it up. Otherwise I was happy with it.
I did also post about this a page or two back.
post#1253

 

I am going to try that tomorrow. I am frapontillo on the Dell thread, so I'm answering you here

 

I would appreciate that, thank you.
Do you get any light bleeding through on the edges/corners of the screen?
Mine was quite noticeable on the bottom corners, I was wondering if they're all like that.

 

Did dell fix the sound hissing problem yet? If not, is there a fix?

 

There is no fix, but Im trying to find out if the problem doesnt happen with a pair of USB headphones. The problem cant be at source or you would hear it through the speakers, so if its specific to the jack connector, I could live with it by only using USB

 

Hey guys,

I'm still hoping that there is at least one owner of this laptop out there who has no hissing by using normale earphones. But unfortunalety this person doesn't say anything. :-(
@ Wobag: Do you think the problem could maybe be solved by using a USB adapter for 3,5 mm earphones?

 

Well, I couldn't hear any hiss while testing the sound output of my 7537.
Tested with a set of HTC earphones with microphone, Sennheiser headphones and Genius speakers. All was clear.

 

To be clear, there are users on this forum that havent experienced the hiss. However if the question is, is there a solution to having it? I have not read of anyone who had it, then managed to get rid of it.

I do not own the laptop yet, and wont buy it until I can confirm, as before, that a pair of USB headphones will sidestep the issue.

 

I have posted before - no hiss with headphones, also no hiss using speakers connected via headphone jack.

 

I get the hissing through the jack - it kind of starts before sound plays and stops some time afterwards. Usually use Behringer UCA202 USB soundcard and there's no hiss through headphone jack or RCA connectors with that.

 

Hi I am a proud owner of Inspiron 15 7000 as well. However I am the kind of the person that tends wants the best of the best. but at the time i was buying one i could not afford the best verison and got the basic one, which is still petty good. however I was thinking about if it possibleto replace the CPU core, the one with i5 with a i7 core and if so what kind of configuration does the motherboard use for the intel core?

Thanks.
Stargazer12

 

No headphone hissing for me, sound is clear.

 

I'm fairly sure it's soldered to the MB so you can't change it.

Even if you could only the 15w models would work and that highest one is the Intel® Core™ i7-4600U (the 7000 top model comes with the i7-4500U) I assume you have the one with the i5-4200U.

You would probably get more improvement from changing the HDD to a SSD anyway.

EDIT:

Comparison here: Intel Core i7 4600U vs i5 4200U

As you can see there isn't much of a difference.

 

The screen of my Inspiron 7537 is "SDC4C48". I don't know what manufacturer is.

Although the screen looks great (very good colors and angles), it has very low brightness. I measured the display with a Spyder4Pro and here are the results:

Brightness: 210 cd/m²
Black: 0,34 cd/m²
Contrast: 620:1

sRGB: 99%
AdobeRGB: 78%

What model are your screen?

No problems with Wi-Fi. Speedtest results: 67.45Mbps Download / 10.44Mbps Upload.

BTW, the keyboard sucks...

 

Agreed, the contrast ratio and the brightness nit are a little low compared to what was reviewed on Notebookcheck. I put my screen side by side with the ipad 3 I have and the ipad is a tad bit brighter and the color is really vivid and saturated on my screen, there's no way contrast is 620:1 on mine. sRGB and Adobe numbers are decent. May I ask if it is Full HD or not? Because 720p screen could have those results. Lots of my friends who have the macbook didn't complain anything when typing on mine so keyboard to me is just fine.

Okay, so here is my story. A few weeks ago, I forgot to turn it off and battery wear went from 0.7 to 3.3%. Then yesterday, I left the laptop on battery as usual after a week constantly being charged. Then when I plugged it in this morning, the battery had 3% remaining juice but battery wear disappeared completely and it's at 0% now. Weird! Other than that, I am loving this laptop on every aspect (maybe not the weight and the thickness).

 

Is anyone having issues with laptop not going to sleep automatically? Mine won't. I've checked my power options, ran powercfg requests and none are open, ran powercfg energy and nothing there that should be prevening sleep, I've left the homegroup, disabled ipv6, made sure the network card power management isn't allowing computer to turn off network card, disabled allowing magic packets to wake - nothing seems to work. When I first got the laptop, it went to sleep just fine, but since I did the clean install, it won't. It magically started sleeping by itself for a couple of days about 3 weeks ago, and I tried to figure out what was different, but couldn't. Then it went back to being an insomniac. It will sleep if I tell it to, it just won't go to sleep automatically.

It's frustrating knowing that it did work at one time. I've researched a ton and this seems to be a widespread windows 8 issue - just wondering if anyone here has any pearls of wisdom.

 

Hello Guys,

I have a question for the users who had WiFi issues and replaced the Intel 7260N dual band card with the 7260AC. Replacing the card has solved your connection issues?

I have experienced connection drops, tried everything from updating drivers, tweek advanced settings, even a Dell technician have replaced the card and no luck.

 

Guys,
Please let us know if replacing Intel 7260N dual band card with the 7260AC would work !!
I am also facing the WIFI issue and after reading all the hassles you have gone through I am planning to replace instead of asking replacement from Dell !!
Thank you.

 

Can we ask for 7260 AC replacement card from Dell only ? Do you think they could give us a different card than what they have mentioned in the invoice ?

 

Need some HELP!

Just go my 7537 and replaced the HD with a Samsung Evo 250GB.

Instead of cloning i just want to do a clean install i have one in mind but now do i install it...

This is my first contact with UEFI and Safe boot....i wanted to install a custom win8 via USB but fat32 doesn't allow bigger than 4gb

so reading loads i ended up burning a DVD with some custimization for UEFI and tried to use an external dvd rom but

I'm not getting any further than no boot device found etc...tried legacy boot in bios also no luck - UEFI is supposed to be faster so I'd like that what am missing here?

 

hi.. when did u place ur order ? I am also waiting for my laptop, estimated date is 2/7 , placed order on 1/24..

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I have replaced my card with 7260AC and it works perfectly and has much better performance than the 7260N. I am currently on driver version 16.8

Screenshot: